Daily Driver Diaries – Oog Drive Car, Later, Oog Discover Fire

Wrenchin' @ Random

I have a confession: I don’t know how to drive new cars. Imagine a caveman is defrosted and finds all of contemporary society mysterious and terrifying. Well, that’s me every time I’m in a modern car.

Unlike many vintage-car fans, I don’t think old cars are superior, nor do I think new cars are soulless. Recently, I’ve had a chance to drive several modern cars, and it’s been a lot of fun. I went ice racing in a ’13 Challenger R/T, tooled around Venice (California) in an Aston Martin Vanquish, and tried to blend in while behind the wheel of a Gotta Have It Green ’13 Shelby GT350. All the new cars had one thing in common: They confused the heck out of me. How do you move the seat up? Push down or pull up for Reverse? I see displays for the outside temperature, the date, the time, the song currently on the radio, the mpg, my horoscope, and six recipes involving beets, but where is the water temperature? While we’re asking questions, how do I turn off the brights/windshield wipers/emergency flashers? They’ve been on for the last 30 miles.

I was beginning to think that maybe I just didn’t know how to drive, and then I had the chance to get behind the wheel of a ’66 Shelby GT 350-H. The shifter was like a spoon in a soup pot, it had some sort of weird ignition miss at high rpm, and the brakes were more of a suggestion than a command. I felt right at home. It’s all what you’re used to.

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